The world’s well-known Hydrocarbon Processing magazine selected SOCAR’s Star refinery project in Turkey top hydrocarbon processing project of 2015. The editors focused on major refining and petrochemical projects under construction. This year’s refining nominees represent over 1.5 MMbpd of additional refining capacity by 2019.
These projects are located on five different continents and represent a total cost of over $44 B. Over the past two months, Hydrocarbon Processing readers voted online to select the top refining and petrochemical projects of 2015.
SOCAR Turkey Aegean Refinery (Star), Petkim Peninsula, Turkey and North West Redwater Partnership’s Sturgeon Bitumen Refinery, Sturgeon County, Alberta, Canada were selected top winner projects. The magazine noted that Star refinery will be the largest petrochemical complex in Turkey with the inclusion of Petkim. According to the country’s Value-Site 2023 vision for the Petkim Peninsula, SOCAR Turkey’s STAR project will be instrumental in creating the first petrochemical industrial park in Turkey.
One of the $5.6-B, 10-MMtpy plant’s purposes is to provide naphtha feedstock to the Petkim petrochemical complex. This additional feedstock is vital to help curb Turkey’s dependence on imports, as well as to provide the local market with Euro 5-graded transportation fuels. The refinery will have the capability to process various crude oil feedstock including Urals, Azeri Light and Kirkuk. The refinery is Turkey’s first private-sector refinery.
The project has earned numerous accolades, including “Best Project Financing of the Year” from Global Financial Conferences and “Refinery Financing Deal of the Year” from Project Finance International magazine.
Once completed in first quarter of 2018, the refinery will be the first to start production in Turkey since 1984 and complete a major initiative of Turkey’s Refinery-Petrochemical-Energy-Logistics-Distribution program. Other winner - the Sturgeon refinery will be the first refinery built in Canada in nearly 30 years.